I have a philips cd r/w that I have have sucessfully used to copy about 10 music cds, both cd to cd and then h/dr to cd. It how ever has decided to dissapoint me and wont work any more. These are the errors that come up when I double click my recorder icon on the desktop.

1) double click on the cd icon----easy cd creator 5 basic, pick make music cd, pick music cd project
2) window opens up, title of window is CREATE API- contents of window red x and easy cd creator engine initialization has failed. OK at the botton. Before i can click on ok, window closes and another opens up
3) title of this window is EASY CD CREATOR and message says-- exception in createInstance of creator. OK at the botton. Hit ok. new window opens
4) title of win = CREATOR50 --- Big red x and message saying program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. if the problem persists contact the program vendor. option given are close, debug, details.
i have removed the writer program and reinstalled to no avail
called the cd manufacturer told me i might have a virus. virus scan says otherwise.
Please help.

I may be wrong and I'm sure the gurus will have better ideas but it sounds like you have a software conflict. Could you please give more detail about what kind of computer you have. It really sounds like it could be as simple as uninstalling and then reinstalling your software for the CD/RW. LG;)

well, messed that up didn't I guys. Teach me to try and answer a question huh? LG;)

Hello Cliff

If you haven't changed your hardware or software and something starts acting up [provided the harware isn't on the blink] then it's almost certainly a nasty configuration change.
So when this happens you immediately restore the previous registry and configuration files.
In Windows 98 you do this by going to a command prompt [there are many and varied ways of doing this] and typing "scanreg /restore" and blip "Enter". You will be asked to select one of the five copies that the system takes after the first successful boot on each new day.

If you suspect that a change may have occurred in the software so that none of these backups would match the present software arrangement [it's only just been changed and now it won't boot] then you must re-format the C: drive and restore a backup of the C: drive.
This is the safest thing to do of the two. If in doubt do this.
The settings in the registry and configuration files must mate exactly with the software arrangement. You cannot have settings pointing to files that don't exist for example.

There are two ways to achieve a perfect match/meeting/mating.
1. You re-store a backup of a perfectly built/installed set of software [only an hour or two's time and little work].
2. You re-format and re-install to re-build your software [and that takes a LOT of time and effort].

If you were all knowing you would know precisely which misconfiguration or file problem was causing this and could quickly put it right.
However, in the real world [with limited knowledge] you could still be looking for the cause at Christmas.

The books say:
Make certain you make a backup; one day you WILL need it!

cliff, give this a try, uninstall easy cd then go to the directory it was installed in and manually delete the remaining files then reboot and reinstall. Like mentioned earlier if this is a recent problem I would try scanreg /restore first.

On the reinstall just do the minimum installation that you need. I forget the name of the drag and drop software that comes with that but its known to be a bit buggy.

BTW, are you having any other problems with your system? Are you able to burn data discs?